Affiliate programmes are the marketing engine of the gambling business: the operator pays not for a campaign but for a result — the revenue or the action of a referred player. It is a commercially effective model, and precisely therefore a legally loaded one: every step of an affiliate is advertising, and gambling advertising in Georgia is a strictly limited field. This page builds the legal framework of the affiliate business: first the exact frame of Georgian advertising law — the exceptions within which alone work is possible; then contract design — what must be written between operator and affiliate; and finally the money-flow layer — payments, taxes and anti-money-laundering. Industry commission rates and terms are not quoted here — they are a matter of market and negotiation.
The Georgian frame: four exceptions and nothing else
The foundation is the Georgian law on advertising, whose article 8-3 concerns gambling advertising and whose article 2(8) brings the field within the law's scope. The rule is this: advertising of gambling, totalizator, lotto, bingo and organisers is prohibited in any form — including electronic communication networks — except for precisely defined exceptions. First: placement is allowed only on the website where system-electronic gambling or totalizator is permitted — for an affiliate this means traffic may be directed only to the site of an operator holding such a permit. Second: at a sports event or competition venue or at a sports organisation's premises — only as consideration for sponsorship, only in visual form and only on the inner perimeter — banners and participants' uniforms included. Third: visual placement on the object where gambling is permitted — under ten square metres and as the only such sign on the object. Fourth: at an airport open to international traffic or a border crossing point. Advertising of promotional draws follows the same prohibition-and-exceptions scheme.
From this a consistent conclusion follows for the affiliate business model: promotion of gambling on social networks, blogs, video hosts and media sites does not fit this frame — the formats where affiliates usually work fall, insofar as they target Georgia, into prohibited formats. When planning an affiliate programme this must be the first question, not the commission rate: what kind of content may be directed at the Georgian market at all.
Contract design: operator and affiliate
The affiliate agreement is concluded under the Civil Code's freedom of contract, and its architecture splits into blocks. The commercial block: the compensation model — revenue share as a percentage of the referred player's revenue, a fixed payment per action, or a hybrid; reporting periods; the minimum payout threshold; currency. The content block: rules for using the brand and trademarks, a list of permitted content, and — decisive — recognition of the Georgian advertising frame inside the contract: operator and affiliate must jointly observe the four exceptions of article 8-3, and this obligation must be written into the text, with the consequences of breach. The liability block: what happens when the affiliate breaches the content rules — who absorbs the operator's regulatory risk; and conversely, when the operator fails to pay. The exit block: the "ownership" of traffic, the data, and termination terms.
The formal side matters too: the Entrepreneurs law gives the Georgian contour a defined form — an affiliate operating in Georgia must be organised as a registered entrepreneur, and the contractual chain must reflect that form. When working with international affiliate networks, the governing law and dispute forum are set in advance — that clause is far more expensive than any commission.
The money flows: payments, taxes, AML
The Georgian legal layer of affiliate payments splits into three parts. First — the operator's side: under article 5, part 1 of the gambling law, organising and supplying into Georgia requires a permit, and under article 11, part 2 the permit is issued only to a registered entrepreneur — the counterparty of an affiliate programme must be exactly such an operator. Second — the tax side: an individual organiser's income is taxed on the margin under article 80, part 7 of the Tax Code; article 81 governs the rates; article 171(b) exempts gambling services from VAT — while the taxation of the affiliate's own commission depends on its status and the transaction's structure and requires separate assessment. Third — the AML layer: where a Georgian entity is in the chain, articles 3, 11 and 12 of the AML law apply; on the operator's side, article 29(b) of the gambling law governs winnings registration with reporting to the Financial Monitoring Service — and the flows of marketing budgets are verified through that prism too.
And one more dimension, often omitted: an affiliate working in a foreign operator's programme and addressing Georgian players must assess its own position also in the context of articles 951 and 952 of the Civil Code: a claim from a game arises only on a permitted game, and the model of relations with players must account for that risk.
Frequently asked questions
Four questions repeat themselves on affiliate programmes.
May an affiliate advertise gambling on social networks?
For content directed at the Georgian market — no. Article 8-3 of the advertising law prohibits gambling advertising in every form except four exceptions: a permitted website, sponsorship on the inner perimeter, one sign up to ten square metres on the object, an airport or a border. Social networks do not fit this frame.
What is the typical compensation model?
In practice revenue share, fixed payment per action and hybrids are used — the concrete terms are a matter of negotiation. The legal side is that reporting, minimum thresholds and payment terms must be written precisely in the contract — most affiliate disputes are born exactly there.
Who answers if the affiliate placed content unlawfully?
That is established by the contract — which is why it must be written: the operator's regulatory risk and the affiliate's responsibility must be allocated in the text. The general practice rule: breaching the content rules is a breach of contract with separate consequences.
What must an affiliate know about taxes and AML?
An affiliate operating in the Georgian contour is a registered entrepreneur, and the taxation of its commission depends on status and transaction structure — separate assessment is needed. Where a Georgian entity is in the chain, articles 3, 11 and 12 of the AML law apply.
How We Help on Legal.ge
Legal.ge builds affiliate programmes from both sides. For operators: we draft the framework of affiliate agreements with content rules that mirror the four exceptions of the advertising law, with the consequences of breach; we build the reporting and payment mechanics; and we assess the programme's regulatory risk. For affiliates: we verify the form of activity through the prism of the Entrepreneurs law, build the tax assessment, and mark the decisive contract clauses — reporting, payments, exit. For both sides the same truth holds: the affiliate model in gambling is lawful only inside a precisely written frame — and that frame, with four exceptions and nothing more, is written by the law itself. Contact us before the programme launches or the contract is signed.